No Quit In Ellington Athlete After Losing Legs In Afghanistan

December 11, 2011|Lori Riley

The way Jon Caron sees it, his brother Greg wouldn't want a wheelchair ramp built at his house. Greg has never told him this, but they're twins. Jon knows. Greg would rather walk in the door under his own power.

Greg also can't wait to play golf again. And Jon wouldn't be surprised if Greg outruns him once he is fitted for prosthetics and gets back into shape again — and Jon, a Marine like his brother, is no slacker. He can run a 5K in 22 minutes.

Greg, a former Ellington soccer and basketball player who graduated in 2004, lost the lower part of both legs and one of his fingers in an IED explosion in Afghanistan on Nov. 12.

He was awarded the Purple Heart Wednesday by the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James F. Amos, at Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Md., where he is recuperating. Greg, 25, will be there another 7-8 months.

"I knew he'd be strong, get through it," Jon said. "When we first saw him, we didn't how bad the situation was, and we were shocked in how high spirits he was. He pretty much told me, 'It is what it is. You gotta make the best of it.'

"Ever since he's been there, it hasn't been emotional at all. He's as tough as a nail."

That's no surprise to his former Ellington coaches and teammates. Not that it was anything close to what happened last month, but boys soccer coach Roy Gurnon remembers Greg taking an elbow to the face in the 2002 Class M semifinal soccer game against Nonnewaug. His nose broken, his face swollen, Greg — the team's leading scorer — offered to go back into the game. Another of the Knights' top players, Mark Cleverdon, broke his foot in the same game and Ellington needed him.

"That loss was heartbreaking," said Cleverdon, who played soccer at Hartford and is now a police officer in South Windsor. "I think we could have won if we had all our cards on the table."

Cleverdon and his twin brother, Ryan, who also played, graduated that year. But the next year, Greg — who left the school as the all-time leading scorer with 43 goals (a record that has since been broken) — and Jon came back and beat Nonnewaug 2-1 in the Class M semifinal.

Greg scored on a penalty kick with three minutes left after Jon was fouled in the box.

Actually, that's not exactly what happened.

"I took a dive in the box," Jon said Saturday, laughing. "There were three minutes left in the game. You gotta do what it takes."

Jon and Greg were always together and always competing against each other. They played all kinds of sports growing up in Ellington with the two other sets of twins close to their age, the Cleverdons and the Gelsosimos — Brian and Jason.

"Him and his brother and me and my brother, we were four of the most competitive people," said Brian Gelsosimo, who played basketball with the Carons. "He and his brother were Red Sox fans. We were Yankee fans. No one would give into the other. We'd start arguments about everything."

Gurnon remembered drills at soccer practice where he would tell the Carons and the Cleverdons, "Whoever gets this one, we'll call home and [the winner] will get the extra pork chop for dinner."

Don Flint coached the Carons in basketball their senior year at Ellington.

"I think the thing that epitomizes their competitiveness was their unwillingness to let anything sideline them," Flint said. "Both of them sprained their ankles severely at one point or another. They had barely any lateral movement. But they both had them wrapped and they were like, 'Coach, I'm ready to go.'"

It was natural that such an attitude would carry over into the Carons' military career. Their older brother, Mike, joined the Marines and eventually Jon and Greg joined up, too. Both went to Iraq in 2008-09, with different battalions.

Jon, who still has six months left in the Marines, has been back and forth to Maryland constantly in the past month. Gurnon visited Greg, who was married last December, on Thanksgiving weekend and came away with a good feeling.

"It was a great visit," Gurnon said. 'I gave him his former Ellington jersey. He told his brother to hang it on the wall next to his Marine flag and some other stuff. He was extremely willing to talk about his experience. He was thankful for his commanding officer, who he said saved his life.

"He talked about he can't wait to get back out on the golf course. I don't think he's going to be one to sit there and not do anything. He's going to push the envelope."

A basketball tournament to benefit the Greg Caron Foundation is scheduled for Jan. 8 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Ellington High School. For more information for this and other fundraising events, go to http://www.gregcaronfoundation.com. If you would like to donate to the Greg Caron Family Fund, the address is P.O. Box 262, Ellington, CT 06029.